When collecting lien waivers, whom should we collect waivers from, all supplies and subcontractors? Should suppliers of equipment and services work, like design work, should they provide a lien waiver with their monthly invoice?
Generally speaking, waivers should be collected from any project participant who is entitled to lien rights and properly secured those rights with a preliminary notice (if required).
Under California's lien laws , this will include direct contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers (note: suppliers to suppliers don't have lien rights), equipment lessors, and design professionals. Essentially, anyone who provided labor and/or materials for the permanent improvement of the real property and sent a valid CA preliminary notice.
A big misconception about lien waivers is that a waiver executed by one party will protect against claims from that party's subs, suppliers, and vendors. This is not the case, as a prime contractor, waivers should be collected not only from your subs on the project, but also any subs or vendors hired by your subs who provided a preliminary notice. This article, How to Handle Requesting and Tracking Lien Waivers, provides some best practices and tips to effectively collect lien waivers on a project.
Here are some additional resources that may also prove useful:
Sending a preliminary notice in California is required in order to have lien rights (with the exception of direct contractors; unless there is a lender on the project.) So if a party did not provide notice, they will not have lien rights, and thus a waiver from that party would be essentially inconsequential.
One last thing to note, to be an effective notice in CA, it must be sent to both the owner and the general contractor (and lender if any). As a GC, best practice would be to maintain a list of parties who have provided notice, and be sure that (at the very least) waivers are collected from those parties.